9. Heretics Of Dune

By Frank Herbert (480 pgs)

Rating: 4

The emperor is dead. Long live...the priesthood? Rakis is returning to desert and the great sand worms are slowly dying. The peoples of the scattering are returning and they bring with them strange warped versions of the familiar institutions. The Bene Gesserit play a dangerous game that might save them all.

Heretics of Dune is a bit of a break from the familiar patterns Herbert set up in the intervening three books between Dune and this one. Almost as convoluted as the first and dealing with much less powerful individuals, I think this book has almost single handedly convinced me to finish off reading the original series. I found the characters well drawn and highly believable and the plot was dense but compelling.

Recommended generally as a political science fiction. It's almost too bad you have to read 4 books to get to this one.